FFXIV Fan Festival 2018: Shadowbringers promises new story, new regions, and new jobs

The plan was to fan a spark into a flame, but now it’s getting dark, so who’ll remember your name? (Apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda for that.) Yes, it turns out that we are indeed getting another new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV (not a surprise) called Shadowbringers (also not a surprise), but the keynote for the 2018 Fan Festival still featured tons of surprises and excitement. The whole thing kicked off with the Shadowbringers trailer, too, and that right away built excitement. A flashback to the adventures of the generic Warrior of Light, showing off every change in jobs, every shift, from the 1.0 trailer as an Archer to the Samurai of 4.0… followed by a transformation into Dark Knight. There were also signs of ruined flags, wreckage, and Thancred with a mysterious girl in white and a gunblade on his back. So we’re covering a lot of ground. Of course, we didn’t get anything held back shortly thereafter; we were immediately told that the expansion is planned for release in early summer of 2019 as version 5.0. From there, we moved into a discussion of the transition; starting in 4.5, we’ve got the obvious tension of six nations standing against Garlemald and bringing the fight to the Empire. Until, that is, a fateful confrontation takes place between the Warrior of Light and Zenos yae Galvus, or more accurately Elidibus using his body. Elidibus and Solus yae Galvus (the first Emperor and confirmed Ascian) are both playing a crucial role… [Read full story]